Majority of City of Kamloops projects under budget

Photo: Brendan Kergin

FILE: Victoria Street West under construction.

Over the last 20 or so months, the City of Kamloops has undertaken millions of dollars worth of projects, the majority of which have come in below budget.

In a report to city council, administration reports that they've managed $95 million in completed or ongoing projects; while some are still going, the as of right now they're $2.8 million below budget.

Of 43 completed projects during that time, only eight were over budget. Of those, the largest was the Arrowstone booster station replacement, which was $199,000 over its expected $1.9-million price tag. The next highest was the unmanned gates at the now city-run parkades in the downtown core ($93,000 over budget) and the exits at the Sandman Centre ($53,000 over budget).

At the same time, several projects were significantly under budget: drainage improvements from Qu'Appelle Boulevard ($458,000 under), River Road reconstruction ($432,000 under) and Todd Road pedestrian upgrades ($464,000).

In yesterday's council meeting, CAO David Trawin noted the staff overseeing budgets have been updating best practices to make budgets more accurate. City administration chalked the regularity of coming under budget on capital projects to a few different reasons, including better interdepartmental communication.